Grrl Power #905 – Imaginary gopher
- Sydney really is talking to someone.
- She’s thought about what she’d do in a situation like this and is being weirdly convincing about it.
- She’s cracking under the stress, despite putting on a collected front, and really thinks she’s talking to someone.
- She’s debuting the first scene of a play she’s working on.
- All of the above.
The full Skilltree is thus:
- Ambivilize an Adversary
- Baffle a Baddie
- Confuse a Criminal
- Distract a Delinquent (or a D-List Supervillain)
- Embroil an Evil-Doer
- Flummox a Foe
- Garble a Grifter
- Helter-skelter a Hooligan
- Imbroglize an Illicit
- Jumble a Jailbird
- Katzenjam a Knave
- Lead-astray a Lout
- Mystify a Malefactor
- Nonplus a Ne’er-do-well
- Obfuscate an Offender
- Perplex a Profligator
- Quagmire a Quincunx (I just wanted to use the word Quincunx)
- Rattle a Reprobate
- Stump a Scofflaw
- Tumult a Traitor
- Unsettle an Unscrupulous
- Vex a Villain
- Welter a Wicked
- Xenotransplant a Xenophobe (You come up with something better)
- Yarmulke a Yobbo (In my defense, this would confuse many people.)
- Zig-Zag a Zealot
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#2
“Baffle A Baddie”? That’s hardly the best in the list. Try again.
Wrong list
I think Sydney may be a much better poker player than I’ve given her credit for.
This may be a Phil Ivy level bluff.
Sydney was handily winning that strip poker game. and nobody else was quite sure how.
Because she is full of tells, but nobody could understand what they were telling…
This is my new headcanon.
You can either try to stop the tells, or you can deliberately throw so many contradictory and/or misleading ones that you jam the channel into uselessness.
She was winning because she was the only one who actually cared about keeping her clothes on.
The best part is in a world with powers as divers as all this they can’t actually know if she is being serious or just bullshitting them!!!
Sydney plays D&D, a good bluff is one of the best parts of the game.
I have no idea what is going on or Sidney’s plan is and I love it.
I would say Xanatos a Xenophobe, because when you deal with cultists, some 9001+ IQ strategy is handy.
Or: “Xericide (death by dryness) a Xenophone”
It’s an ancient spell that removes the four humours (blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phelgm) leaving behind only dry humor, which is often a killer.
Totally #1 (seriously, no-one wants to see a #2 from Sydney, specially if she’s recently had a trip to Fracture… )
I want it to be #1 because I want Sydney to be saved as soon as possible before Badguy McHateswomen has his way with her, but its most likely #2. Hopefully while she is bluffing, this will lead her to accidentally calling Cora and/or Dabbler with her glasses or something so she can actually be saved
Well, she’s clearly talking to Dabbler’s handler X. Whether he’s actually there or not is anyone’s guess.
But she can only see him with access to the LightBee, so it seems like she would have to be bluffing right?
No, wouldn’t be Ms X, because they are real, and, as such, punch (or phantom-wedgie, would totally start off by doing at least one phantom-wedgie before the reveal :D )
Definitely not; not only he can become visible to anyone, but he is also material. He just had a mediocre cloacking the only time we saw him. Also, as you pointed out, she shouldn’t be able to see him and he would have no reason to be there. In addition she is “presenting” it as the AI help of the orbs: there is absolutely no reason to think it is Dabbler’s hadler.
“cloacking” is a hilarious misspelling if you raise chickens.
I’m voting “2”, because this comic is largely from her perspective, so we’d almost certainly have known of it if there really was an anthropomorphic A.I. assistant.
Sydney already crossed that one off Maxima bingo, but it’s still a great typo.
Y’all have forgotten her super glasses. Alien tech glasses absolutely will function like a communicator.
Yeah, only if she remembers, and the has figured out how to send rather than reply, and the only ones who know about it, is Cora and Mr Woofingston (what? that’s totally his last name)
Unless Cora/Cora’s Crew opened a voice channel through them and Sydney’s just responding
There is that possibility (wouldn’t be Cora, she’s busy with Henchie and Co… or she was)
But her patter doesn’t match that, so if that’s what is happening, she is running a bluff that calls out the real hand, which makes no sense. “I have a full house in Fives and Jacks” when it’s really Queens and threes.
Those chokers the team wears are more than just communications. Among other things, they link to the ‘pip-boys’ (which I notice Sydney isn’t wearing – have they switched the functions to her glasses?), which means headquarters HAD a last-known-position several minutes ago when Concreta popped it.
Or does anyone really believe that field support didn’t scramble at the same time the field team did? Might not be fully set up (might not even be on the ground yet), but they’ll still be monitoring the situation.
So, this may be a bluff; but if so, it has a strong chance of proving to have teeth anyway. And my money is on ‘not a bluff’…
Sydney was the only one who had that ‘pip-boy’, and Archon doesn’t know she has had her glasses upgraded
Why would Field Support be scrambled for a simple Border Security task?
The minute the alien fight started, Arc would have scrambled all supporting units.
We’ve had a couple of minutes of alien fight, at the end of which Sydney flew off to look for a place to stash the pod, then a couple minutes of LLC fight, so Sydney’s probably up to about the point where we left HenchWench.
Arc support units are definitely monitoring the team by now (Sydney’s time) from wherever they (Arc Support) are.
But there’s a lot of leeway for what drama happens next…
Leon interrupts Max to go save Sydney…
Harem pops in (and potentially finds out what happens when one of her dies…
In any case, it seems likely that these guys are part of the LLC, since otherwise Concretia’s powers wouldn’t be in HenchWench’s arsenal.
Who said Cree’s powers were in Henchies arsenal?
Have we seen Cree manipulate concrete without being an astral form? Have we seen Henchie assume astral form to move earth?
Most likely, Cree is just a red herring and this group has nothing to do with the L.L.C.
For that matter, Concretia specifically disclaimed corporate backing to the group holding her (real body). But did let drop that they’re interested in the origin of powers (rather than just capturing xenotech for money).
And we know that geokinesis, as a power, is not unique to her.
Actually, Woofs don’t have last names, although they do use foliate papillary vibration frequencies (they vibrate the sides of their tongues) to indicate familial roles. No, it’s pheromones that they use to indicate family. Scent tells a Woof everything they need to know about familial relation and marital status, usually. Perfumes are a HUGE signal of dishonesty in Woof culture.
O shit, I did forget about those glasses. Neat.
I can’t believe her glasses have an AI
No, but they do have galactic-mail, and probably voice-chat, so… maybe hiding the fact she is communicating with them by being Sydney
Which would confuse people? ‘Yarmulke’ or ‘Yobbo’? Only one of those is unknown to me
Getting a skullcap slapped on from behind would definitely be a surprise.
Especially if it’s a specific type of skullcap with religious connotations and the victim isn’t a follower of that religion.
And Judaism isn’t big on conversion.
They’re more willing to accept newcomers than, say, Zoroastrianism.
No, they are not big on outgoing conversions, they will accept (almost) anyone, as long as they give up their past beliefs and family (and the tip of their dick, if male)
Speaking as someone who, in a period of existential crisis during boot camp, approached the Jewish Chaplain specifically to seeking admission…yeah, no.
Rabbis (as I later found out) are trained to very specifically turn you away, three times. It helps to weed out the insincere, insecure, and inconsistent. And in my case, it gave that very particular Rabbi an excuse to give me counsel and guidance during an extremely distressing time in my life, without wasting a lot of time and energy on everyone’s part.
I remain an atheist, but I will always have a soft spot for Judaism, because of that man, and his tremendous character. The various Xian cult leaders would have snatched me up in a heartbeat.
Judaism is actually more of an exclusive religion instead of an inclusive one. Ie, they try to discourage you from converting to it. They literally turn you away when you ask to convert several times before they let you. They want to make darned sure you want to convert before they let you. They give you a ton of homework and studying to do on the religion and its tenets, etc. I only know this because my mom converted to Judaism when she was younger and they do NOT make it simple according to her.
And now as I write this I notice that Bharda essentially wrote something very similar and probably more on point, but I’m going to post this anyway since I already wrote an entire paragraph.
Nice post.
That was to Bharda. I wasnt telling myself that I made a nice post.
But you did.
Yeah. I meant it to be in response to someone else though.
Although my post was indeed fabulous.
Didn’t say it was easy, because it’s generally a one-way trip
How many people do you know of her are ex-Jew? Plenty of ex-Christians (including all their sub-groups), even ex-Muslims, but not too many if any ex-Jews
No idea really.
There are fewer Jewish people overall than Muslim or Christian by a huge margin (about 14.7 million Jews vs 2.3 billion Christians vs 1.8 billion Muslims) – largely because the tenets of Judaism ARE exclusive rather than inclusive when it comes to conversion, so in general there would be less leaving the religion in the first place. You’d have to check on percentages to know if there is actually a difference compared to Christians, Muslims, and other religions, I’d think.
To be fair I tend to not really care what people’s religions are on forums (jewish, christian, muslim, buddhist, wiccan, agnostic, atheist, disciple of all-mighty Odin, whatever, doesn’t really matter that much with the debates on these discussion forums).
Except for Deusists. Anyone who is a Deusist is automatically in a superior position of all things logical, and definitely make the greatest arguments. All praise Deus, amen.
You obviously have not met sufficient followers of the noodly one.
I have not met sufficient followers of the noodly one, correct. And the words ‘noodly one’ make me want to hide under my bed.
Praise Jibbers
Thank you, wasn’t sure what that was, just a vague-ish idea
For the record, ‘Yobbo’ is fairly common down here, and believe it has nothing to do with religion
When I was little, I always used to think yarmulke was spelled yamaka because that’s how people say it. :)
… I was trying to figure out how #5 would work, as #1 & #3 seemed to be contradictory at first, and then I realised that #3 never actually said that the person that Sydney really thinks she’s talking to wasn’t real…
I’m going to go with #5, but mostly because I’m fairly sure that she hasn’t recently eaten anything in her preferred perceptual temperature range.
I am 100% certain that Sydney is bull shitting the perps here. I’m also 100% certain that she’s gonna succeed, at least to some degree. “Daddy” is probably convinced that Sydney is bluffing, but Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee are going to fall for it hook, line and sinker.
An ORB A.I. assistant would be insanely useful for her. Therefore, it does not exist.
I think it’s glasses AI assistant, but she doesn’t want them to know she has hi tech glasses so she’s bluffing it’s the orbs
Sydney would know that the glasses AI assistant could not “punch” anyone, so it’s all a bluff.
However, it could be a bluff to cover (for instance) the fact that Concretia already helped her, or it could be just insertion of random confusion (or even reverse psychology) to keep the captors guessing.
I’m betting that the cavalry is already set to arrive far before those three minutes are up. That time frame may have been intended to slow down the bad guys’ reaction time.
No matter what, it has cost the captors some time, which is always a good thing.
Look at how much her eyes are flopping around.
She just called someone on her glasses, and now the visual of what she’s seeing is being passed on to Dabbler.
teleporting is useful, and she was not aware she could do that til right circumstances popped up
I’m leaning towards #2, but one never knows with this series. It could be none of the above.
The real question is why Maxima is not here yet: she heard Sidney call breaking and any subsequent call not being responded. Super hearing plus super speed plus last known position of the choker shouldn’t take that long…
How? Maxi’s collar broke before the call was sent out
She has to be actively using her super hearing, or she would go Sydney-level’s insane because of all the voices
And do you know what happens when you have your hearing turned up to hear a mouse fart on the other side of the Atlantic and someone pops a balloon in an echo-chamber two blocks from you?
I do love that you’re still using that name.
Why not? Shoulda been using this from the start, Heracules is better than Spartacus (specially seeing how been spelling it wrong all these years… )
Hercules or Heracles. You combined them. :)
Spelt it wrong though, used an ‘i’ instead of an ‘a’ for the original (and ‘Guestacules’ looks far too wrong)
Wait, it’s not ‘Heracules’? DAMN IT!!
Don’t worry, your name still sounds like it would work well in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, or Xena: Warrior Princess. :)
every episode he’s in, he’d be played by a different guest actor
:D Brilliant
Honestly I don’t think Maxima is required for this, one Harem could handle this situation.
She could do something interesting, sure, but she could also get (part of) herself killed.
Confuse-A-Cat, LTD, incorporating Amaze-A-Vole, Stun-A-Stoat, Puzzle-A-Puma, and more.
Also #6: she is bluffing, but it was not prepared, she is flying by the seat of her pants, as usual.
I’m terribly disappointed that none of the options include increasing the size of her breasts or ass :(
… What? o_O
I suppose he talks about the SECOND list.
The ‘Confounding the Criminal’ list?
Or is there a third list somewhere?
Your forgetting oneposivlt timely detail.
Sydney is still wearing her Xeno tech Google glasses.
Which I don’t think is relevant here; she said “we still haven’t quite figured that part out yet”, in regards to whoever she’s “talking” to being a person or a ghost, clearly insinuating that she’s been discussing it with someone. If she was talking to anyone about it, Cora DEFINITELY would be part of that, and that would settle it immediately, if it were related to the glasses.
I think that line makes it pretty obvious she’s bluffing here, in an attempt to make the bad guys think they’ve got a short time limit, and thus no time to waste on her (and maybe even the stasis pod).
Yes, it’s clearly fake exposition, and we don’t know whether the purpose of that is to give Concretia cover for having already helped Sydney (who is about to escape) or merely to distract the captors for a few moments and delay them in hope of rescue. Them actually running would be highly unlikely.
Ounterpoint. She does not want them yoinking or smashing her glasses if that’s what’s going on. Also note that yoinking her communications probably did more to key at swat that something is up.Her Mentioning orb ai well they already isolated those
I don’t think they’re buying it.
Good, they won’t be expecting the attack when Dabbler is warned where she’s being held by the Orb AI assistant then.
Everything’s falling into place! :)
1. I love lists
Me too. Let me explain why.
1) They’re an excellent way or organizing a set of thoughts.
2) They reduce the problem of ‘walls of text’ which makes them easier to read and keep track.
3) If one point is incorrect, it usually does not invalidate the entire post.
4) Anyone can make them to explain stuff, even if they are not particularly eloquent in making posts.
5) I can make a self-referential joke like this.
Counter-points:
A —— their only gud if there yewsd propuly8) again, if someone doesn’t try hard enough, or is an idiot, or even worse –tries really hard (or even moderately hard) to work against the idea of lists, and/or is particularly creative, especially if they’re (X) contradictory (Z) contrary but (Y2-W0) contraindicated, they can mess up any benefit which would have otherwise been derived from the “walls of text” problem (as if there ever was such a thing) solution, and when there are countless ways to make things harder to read, from run-ons, to badly formatted and mixing of ordered and unordered lists and series and combinations of words, to poor spilling or wordchoise, using alternative grammer or phrase-type arrangements or incomplet or otherwise confusing thoughts, or distracting spacing
fonts and cha racters, . 7} combining points is definitely possible while still being a “list” despite itself working against both the ‘organization’ and the ‘reducing’ points heretofore at issue [4] good point – even evil doers ⁵again – only as good a tool as the user is willing and capable of making it
Your counterpoints response was truly evil and I loved every part of it.
Yes but not enough semicolons.
“It’s” is contracted, so stands for “It is” or possibly “It was”. “It is… efficacy is to be determined.” doesn’t work so well as a sentence.
More likely “It has” than “It was.”
It’s not a single sentence. “It’s…” is the start of one sentence, presumably ending with something like “super effective”. But we don’t know how effective it is, hence “efficacy to be determined” as a separate sentence.
That is a bit of a stretch.
I personally think that AceOfSpade’s point has merit. “It’s super effective” or “It’s ineffective” is a common trope (I believe from Pokemon games?) and that’s pretty clearly what DaveB is trying to reference. Whether he left the “it’s” in there to make that reference a little more clear is … a little less clear. it could have also been a mistake
This bit is, uncategorically, brilliant.
Doesn’t even matter if there’s someone really there, or there’s a person listening in via the glasses.
Legit, bluffing, insane, doesn’t matter. Still brilliant.
Mind you, this only works if you’re known to be a certain type of person. Maxima could never pull this off.
I’ve suspected this plotline was a setup for the last Orb reveal, and this just makes me more convinced. Frankly, this situation is rather contrived.
All fiction in all forms is contrived. Sorry to ruin your life.
and the word for future possibilities is fiction, because it can always change
I suggest “YEET” for the “Y”
Yeet a Yutz
24. perpleX an eX-convict
Exasperate an Excon.
I like this suggestion – so long as DaveB (or whoever is judging these) is willing to settle for alliteration and forgo seeking a tautogram
My bet is on 1. – she still has her glasses and they might just tell Dabbler where she is.
When did Dabbles learn about the glasses? Cora was the one who made them, and didn’t even tell Sydney that she had ‘upgraded’ them
But Cora and Dabbler are both in the same place. If Sidney’s coms and locators are down, Cora can just tell the rest of the team “oh, hey Sidney as one more piece of tech we can use to locate her”.
We have a bigger problem. What is Concretia thinking about all this?
I can’t tell from her facial expressions. She seems almost wooden. Hope it’s not the Covid.
Judging by her expression, I’d say she’s thinking, “Couldn’t you have come up with something more plausible?”
The bad guy might also be thinking, “Right, strap a bomb on the hostage, NOW. Just in case.”
She animates rock and concrete, not wood. Well at least as far as we know anyway.
ok… either this is like X…
or this a new plot for her due to “reasons”
Xat a Xavier (mom always killed us on scarabble with a triple point two way word score with that one)
Xantusiidae Xavier at Xanthus (this could get messy)
Also she’s deploying (as Max coined) bonkeritis #5
It really sounds like she’s talking either to X or to someone like Gwen from Ark-Light. After all, she managed to make everybody ignore them/turn them invisible to the villains in #208, so maybe she’s doing the same here now.
As for the Skilltree, definitely a 13 for her.
confusion fu at its best
My first impression is she’s running a bluff. Remember her RPG experience. If she pulls this off, I would suggest NEVER playing poker with her again.
I think Sydney’s very clever. She’s trying to confuse them to death!
Confusion in and of itself is not physically harmful. It’s what they do in their confusion that causes the loss of hit points.
She’s bluffing. Can’t say if she thought about it ahead of time or not. In her mind I suspect that she’s betting that others would be on their way because of the signal being cut.
So. I’m not gonna gloss over the fact Mr Daddy Bad Guy Creepo totally pulled his WALLET out in preperation to battle.
That brings up so much questions
That’s… not a wallet, that’s something he hoped would stop Sydney’s wit (he was just too slow, not even Maxi at full speed is faster than the “Speed of Sydney’s Wit”)
My money is on brilliantly played bluff, that will ultimately do little. Since they can not register something is there they will continue forward with their plan until something occurs that changes it. I mean, it is a good play but she over sold it.
It’s a useful play for time, and maybe for a bit of confusion, but those do rely on having someone or something happen in the time thus bought.
My guess is Cora planted an AI into Sydney’s new glasses that can assist her. She’s talking to it right now.
I’d bet Cora put some sort of blink-coded communications system into those glasses.
Sidney uses confusion. It’s surprisingly effective.
Huh…one of my favorite books is titled The Quincunx…and given the blank stares I’ve gotten every time I’ve mentioned it to people, I was certain that maybe 10 people knew that word on the whole of the planet. lol
When you roll a die and it comes up ‘5’.
#5, only, she doesn’t realize she is working on a play
She is playing for time.
This is just the first act.